At first, I would like to warmly thank Minister Michael McCormack and all
our Australian hosts for the very kind welcome we have received.

I also wish to thank Ambassador Patokallio and his staff for helping us
arrange this possibility to enhance both administrative and industrial defence
and security cooperation with Australia. I really do appreciate this effort.

Kuva: A. Niemelä

Ladies and gentlemen,

The past couple of years have
brought hard security to the forefront. As a result of Russia’s actions in
Ukraine, the defense planners all over Europe are looking at old and familiar
threat scenarios. Russia’s actions in Ukraine have made Europe rethink its
defences.

Over many decades of peace and
calm, Finland did not change its defence doctrine. The doctrine is based on
general conscription and territorial defence. This approach enjoys a wide
support of the society. We believe that strong and credible national defence of
Finland will also contribute to regional security and stability.

We are not consumers of
security. We produce security for our neighborhood.

The measures to strengthen our
security are also stated in our Government program. It states that in the
weakened security situation in Europe and the Baltic Sea region, Finland will
pursue an active foreign policy, strengthen the national defence capability and
deepen international security and defence policy as well as material
cooperation.

Our
Government Program acknowledges that growing risks and new threats demand a new
kind of readiness and contingency planning.

Dear participants,

Despite the long distance between our countries Finland and Australia have
good and close bilateral relations and cooperation.

This occasion is an excellent possibility to deepen the defence materiel
and armament cooperation between our countries and industries. I am pleased to
see so many representatives of defence industry companies from both countries
present here today.

In Finland we had parliamentary elections in April last year. The
parliamentary programme with budgeting for the ongoing four year period
reflects the challenges, common to most European countries.

In the coming years, public funding for all government sectors is likely to
remain tight.

In Finland however, we have been able to increase the defence materiel
budget to correspond with the challenges of our changing security environment.

The Finnish assessment is that a balanced defence budget means spending one
third on procurement - including life-cycle support, one third on personnel and
one third on operational activities.

To reach this balanced structure, we will increase our investments in the
coming years.

Finland cooperates bilaterally with several high-tech countries. This
cooperation is vital for us; not only in the fields of defense policy,
capabilities development and international operations, but also in the fields
of procurement, research and development.

I hope this will be more and more the case also in the future. Cooperation
and joining our interests benefits us all. We get better quality and save money
when procurements and life-cycle support can be done together.

Dear participants,

When discussing defence materiel and armaments policy, one should keep
clearly in mind the role of the industry. The White Papers in both our countries
testify for the importance of domestic industry as a tool for keeping up the
defence capability.

Operational requirements, increasing costs and strained defence budgets
make an equation which is difficult to solve without multinational cooperation.
Spending smarter is, in essence, spending together. Networking is the key
element.

The crises we have seen over the last couple of years erupt very fast. This
poses a challenge also to the availability of Defence and security materiel.
The time span from development to production must be minimized. I believe this
challenge can only be solved by deeper cooperation with the industry.

The Finnish defence, aerospace and security industries are well known for their
high quality and innovations. The products are in use in over 30 national armed
forces.

The companies have Focused Expertise. Probably the best known articles are
logistic solutions and products, armoured wheeled vehicles and turreted mortar
systems, ammunition and light combatant vessels.

There are also a number of Small and Medium Enterprises with focus on
high-tech solutions for C5I including cyber domain and cyber security. This is
one of the areas where there is a lot of potential for increased cooperation.

We have to be able to maintain situational awareness. In today’s rapidly
changing environment we need state-of-the-art C5I -capabilities to do it.

There are also needs for cost effectiveness and smallest possible logistic
and maintenance footprint. These demands are essential to the Finnish defence
administration – and our industry has truly been able to meet these requirements.

To sum up,

From the defence point of view certain trends remain: serious financial
constraints will continue, global interdependency will grow and the future will
be more and more difficult to predict. The world is interlinked, also in
defence, and we need to cooperate.

I see a lot of opportunities in expanding defence materiel related
cooperation between our countries − both on administrative and especially on
industrial side.

That is, I believe, the most important issue why we have gathered here
today − to enhance cooperation by strengthening already existing relationships,
opening new contacts and discussing future possibilities.

Finnish companies are well known as manufacturers of premium products with
long life-cycle performance and new innovations on how to utilize technology.
The products are built for Extreme Conditions. Due to harsh Finnish climate, various
conditions in international Operations and the requirements from international
customers the products are built to function in arctic environment as well as
in heated conditions.

The No-Nonsense attitude of Finnish companies speaks for itself - They
deliver. I personally hope that we can further enhance the good cooperation
already existing between Finland and Australia.

As my last point I would like to thank the Association of Finnish Defence
and Aerospace Industries (AFDA), the Australian Industry and Defence Network
Incorporated and the Australian Industry Group for arranging this Seminar.

I wish you all a good Seminar which hopefully leads to new contacts and
rewarding cooperation. Thank you!